Might & Magic Duel of Champions follows a very traditional fantasy storyline that finds players in the middle of an ongoing war between several different factions. Each faction comes with a different hero, reason for fighting and different cards that represent the various armies in the game's story. Haven features light elemental that gather additional resources to quickly overrun opponents. Inferno is all about offensive abilities that overpower foes. Necropolis uses dark magic to rule the realm while sacrificing the faction's own creatures to win battles. Missions in the campaign are linear and feature quick narrative elements with no voiceover work. The storyline isn't very interesting, and most players will likely click through the text to get to the next mission instead of investing much time in this very mediocre story.
The rules of Might & Magic Duel of Champions aren't very complex, but they are different from most other games and still take some time to learn. The battlefield allows players to summon up to five different creatures to the front and back row of the battlefield. There are various creature types that are good for certain situations including shooters that typically fire attacks from the back of the battlefield, melee attackers that fight from the frontlines and fliers that are useful from either position. There are also magic spells and fortune cards that can quickly turn the tide for players in a match. One other important card are the events cards that are available for each player during their turn and can have a wide range of benefits from summoning a more powerful creature to allowing both players to draw an additional card with a lower casting cost.
Cards are played by using resources that are gained at the start of each players' turn. One resource is typically available on the first turn, two on the second and so forth. Each card also has a casting cost that is determined by the power of the hero card that doubles as a life total for each player. If a hero dies, the match ends. Heroes can level up one of three different statistics to cover the casting cost of each other card, and a level can be gained once during each player's turn. All of the rules of the game sound more complicated than they really are, and a set of in-game tutorial missions will allow players to gain experience points, gold and runes to level up and unlock addtional cards, decks and packs of cards.
One problem with the game is that each deck requires a hero in order to play the game. When beginning a new game of Might & Magic Duel of Champions players will be forced to choose from one of three factions, and this will be the only playable deck for some time or until players choose to spend some extra cash to unlock additional decks. The problem is compounded, because players aren't able to view the decks before choosing a faction, so the chosen deck may not fit the desired tactics of the player. Purchasing gold and runes for additional packs is very expensive, and completing some of the early missions can be difficult until some better cards are unlocked for the player's deck. Might & Magic Duel of Champions may be free to play, but it can end up being a very cost prohibitive game to play.
There are a few different game modes available to play in Might & Magic Duel of Champions. The game's campaign features numerous missions and is lengthy enough for most players to continue earning gold, runes and experience for many hours. Daily rewards are also available for additional unlocks. In addition to the campaign, players can head online to play against friends or random players in unranked matches or acquire tournament tickets to compete online for the best prizes. Trades are also available for players to trade their cards with friends or on the online marketplace. One final way to unlock additional cards is the transfer extra or unwanted cards for in-game currency based on their rarity and value. When redeeming cards in this way, players can unlock the rarest cards in the game by offering up a more valuable collection of cards.
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Might & Magic Duel of Champions has a sub par presentation that begins with a tutorial that doesn't fully explain all of the rules of the games and gets even more confusing when card abilities are introduced that typically leave players to figure out how the moves work on their own. The game itself looks good with minimal card animations, but there is also nothing that looks particularly bad or slows the experience. The variety of game modes are nice, but it would have been nice to see a more balanced multiplayer experience to help match players with others that have spent around the same amount of time or money on the game to make matches fair. The game's sound design is nothing special but isn't terribly bad either.
Might & Magic Duel of Champions is a very functional collectible card game that fans of the genre will likely enjoy, but online matches in the game are usually only competitive if both players have spent some money to unlock additional cards for their decks. Might & Magic Duel of Champions is sort of tough to understand at first, but it eventually isn't too tough to master with a little time and patience. Free-to-play is sometimes pay-to-win in Might & Magic Duel of Champions, but the game still offers a very fun card game to play against AI opponents or friends with no need to actually purchase any additional cards not unlocked through the campaign. Collectible card game fans should definitely check out Might & Magic Duel of Champions available exclusively on Steam today!
Might & Magic Duel of Champions is now available free-to-play exclusively on Steam. For more information on the game, check out the official Might & Magic Duel of Champions website.
Game Features:
- Online Multiplayer 1-2
- Over 600 Unique Cards
- DLC Support
- Steam Trading Card Support
- Achievement Support
Game Information:
Developer & Publisher: Ubisoft
Available exclusively for PC
Release Date: November 7, 2013
